Is Yahoo a good domain registrar for the price?

how does that change with a non-US based registrar?

As has been discussed above, some people have experienced problems. However, MelbourneIT, the registrar behind Yahoo! is a reputable company and I can't imagine that you'll run into anything that can't be fixed with a little effort. You know, if $3 is really that big a deal. Seriously though, if $3 is that big a deal, do you need more domain names?

OK, forget about moving domains. How about registering new domains? All things being equal, I might as well go with the cheaper guys, eh? (btw, $3 will buy me a good meal here in India) Any reason I shouldn't register a new domain with Yahoo?

riffola, it doesn't matter what Joker, Gandi or any other registrars policy is. The registry is the only policy that matters and ICANN above that. All .com/.net domains ultimately come from Network Solutions and all .org from PIR. So Joker and Gandi can say one thing, but the domain name can get yanked from the registrant by the registry or ICANN.

As others have said, the few bucks you save aren't worth it. They're not making money with that deal, and you get what you pay for. However, I wouldn't worry about the whole "renting vs. owning use joker/gandi stuff". You can use godaddy and there will be no difference. I personally would use godadday, and I've used a lot. And yes, to register a domain you have to click through a bunch of crap, but unless you're registering a domain every day, it won't make a difference. The extra few bucks to joker is just that, an extra few bucks.

joker.com also gets mad love from me. it's a couple dollars more than godaddy and stuff, but the added value is not having to click through BUNCHES OF SHIT in order to reg your name and the super-simple interface. i love me them crazy germans.

(As a follow up to my "bad experience" answer, it turns out to be fairly easy to change away from the Under Construction page to the behavior I wanted, but there was about 15 minutes of panic.) (And the Yahoo system probably doesn't offer as much control as most admins want.)

Good lord. I wish I had read this earlier. I run my own web server and DNS servers, and I changed my registration to Yahoo to take advantage of the $4.98 deal. Now my former web site simply displays a yahoo "Under Construction" page. Yahoo is way too hands-on for me. I just want them to forward traffic to my DNS server!! AUGH. So to answer the question, yes, I have had a bad experience with them.

It took a hell of a long time to switch from Dotster to Godaddy, and in the end I'm not sure it was totally worth it. Fortunately I was able to get it done without having to actually call anybody.